NK, found for more than its name
In 2020 NK's new online store started with a name everyone knew and a range on its way online. We drew its structure from search demand before the range arrived, so shoppers who never typed NK could find it.
See the results- Client
- Nordiska Kompaniet (NK)
- Industry
- Department store: fashion, beauty and lifestyle
- Markets
- Sweden
- Period
- From summer 2020, before the online store opened that autumnFrom summer 2020
- Our part
- Search strategy and content: category tree, content plan, category and brand pages
Challenge
A famous name, a new store
Nordiska Kompaniet, NK, founded in 1902, sells premium fashion, beauty and lifestyle from department stores in Stockholm and Göteborg.
Work on the online store began in 2019, and it opened in autumn 2020 with a plan to add products and content as it grew. We joined that summer, before the launch, so the pages for search could be planned from the start.
Anyone searching for NK would find NK. The aim was to reach people beyond the traditional NK customer too, and they start from what they want: a kind of product, a brand, a season. Those searches were the opportunity, contested by long-standing online retailers.
The range was large and arriving together: more than a hundred departments and well over a thousand brands, each responsible for its own range and sales, moving into one shared store with one format. The pandemic kept shoppers from the department stores and hit many of the retailers inside them.
What we found
The name was ready for more
A strong name brings everyone who types it. Pages for what people search for bring everyone else.
NK's domain was well established, and the technical platform was ready to build on. The opportunity was in pages for a type of product, a brand or a season: the searches that could bring new customers.
So we started with demand, not with the range. We analysed searches for NK's existing categories and for the ones still to come online, and turned them into recommendations for the navigation and the category tree. The structure followed how people search before there were products to fill it.
Then the pages, in order. A content plan set which category and brand pages were written first, by the demand behind them, and the text went live as the range grew. By the time we first wrote up this case, over two hundred category and product pages had been reworked and more than sixty brand and seasonal pages built.
The third part was the department stores themselves. We specified and optimised the pages for NK's services, so that someone looking for information before a visit found it as readily as someone ready to buy online. For a department store, a search that ends at the door counts too.
It asked NK to build its site in the order that search demand set, while its departments were still bringing their ranges online.
In
The name
NK, a department store since 1902, with a well-established domain.
The range
More than a hundred departments and well over a thousand brands, arriving online over time.
01 Demand
Map what people search for
Existing categories
Searches for what NK already sold online, by product, brand and season.
Categories to come
The same analysis for ranges not yet online, so the structure was ready when they arrived.
02 Structure
Draw the site from the searches
Navigation and category tree
Recommendations for both, from the searches that mattered most.
Built to be indexed
Site structure and technical setup checked against Google's guidelines, so every page could be found and ranked.
03 Pages
Write in order of demand
The content plan
Category and brand pages ranked by the demand behind them.
Live as the site filled
Text went out page by page, not all at once.
Out Stores
Lead search to the door as well
Services and store information
Pages specified and optimised for people planning a visit, not only for people buying online.
A page for every search, online or in store
The work
The result
Found for what it sells
Measurement notesOur original case reported NK in Google's top 10 for about thirty times as many priority searches as when the work began, and revenue from generic search more than doubled.
These are the figures our original case reported in 2023, shown as it reported them. It gave the start of the window, but no end date and no absolute baseline; the notes say what that means.
We would not claim all of it. A new store grows fast in its first months, and 2020 moved shopping online across the board; part of the rise belongs to both.
What we can count is the work: over two hundred category and product pages reworked and more than sixty brand and seasonal pages built. From there the assignment grew, towards searches that follow the seasons and trends, and local content for the two department stores.
- Priority searches in Google's top 10, about thirty times as many
- +2,900%
- Revenue from generic organic search
- +112%
Measurement notes and definitions
- Sources
- The figures reported in our original case study for Nordiska Kompaniet, 2023 (last updated February 2023). It does not name the tools behind them.
- Scope
- Organic Google search to nk.se. The priority searches are a set we chose; the original case does not say how many. Generic search means searches that do not name NK, a term the original case does not define further.
- Window
- From the start of the work in summer 2020 to the time of reporting. The original case states no end date and no comparison period.
- Excluded
- Search visibility, also reported (+61%), is left out of the result: it is a tool's index, not an outcome. Paid search is not in scope.
| Period | Original case, 2023 |
|---|---|
| Priority searches in Google's top 10 | +2,900% (30 times) |
| Revenue from generic organic search | +112% |
| Search visibility | +61% |
| Category and product pages reworked | 218 |
| Brand and seasonal pages built | 65 |
Original case, 2023
- Priority searches in Google's top 10
- +2,900% (30 times)
- Revenue from generic organic search
- +112%
- Search visibility
- +61%
- Category and product pages reworked
- 218
- Brand and seasonal pages built
- 65
Our original case study for Nordiska Kompaniet (in Swedish), 2023
Percentage changes since the work began, with no absolute baseline, end date or named tool, and not checked again against the underlying data. The online store was new in autumn 2020, so changes from its first months are large by nature.
“ Thanks to a relevant and comprehensive SEO strategy, we can make sure we meet our audience and guide it the right way, whether they want to buy online or find information that leads them to the department stores”
What this case says
A name is one search
A strong brand brings the people who already think of it. Everyone else starts from what they need.
Each of those searches is a buying situation, and each needs a page that answers it. Draw the pages from demand before the range arrives, and a new store opens with somewhere for every search to land.
Your case
Who finds you without your name?
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